


Solitaire

by stonegirl77



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Card Games, F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-27
Updated: 2018-02-27
Packaged: 2019-03-23 09:27:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13784586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stonegirl77/pseuds/stonegirl77
Summary: Everyone's favourite God of Mischief finds you playing a card game he's never seen before.





	Solitaire

**Author's Note:**

> Another one of the "how did I leave this on my hard drive" one shots.  
> Let me know what you think!

_Nope._

I picked up three more cards, turned them over, scanned the possibilities.

_Nope._

Three more cards. This time a red jack appeared, one that could go on my black queen. And then the black ten could go on that, and…

“What are you doing?” I jerked, sending the carefully arranged playing cards across the glass table, effectively ending my game of solitaire and forcing me to play 52 pickup instead.

I turned in my chair to find a certain God of Mischief standing a few yards away, horns, armour, and all.

“Don’t you have anything better to do with your time than annoy me?” I asked, almost annoyed enough to not have my usual tongue-tied reaction to Loki’s presence. I’d come up here to be alone, after all. To relax. And a certain, too-handsome-for-his-own-good Asgardian was hardly relaxing.

“Doctor Banner sent me,” Loki replied, crossing to the other side of my table and stooping to pick up the few cards that had flown off the table.

“Oh really?” I grinned, making sure all my cards were facing the same way again. “What did Brucie want?”

“He wanted me to let you know that dinner was ready,” Loki said, passing me the cards and sitting down opposite me.

I raised my eyebrows. “He knows I’m not eating,” I objected. I’d told Bruce I wasn’t hungry. Loki’s brow furrowed.

“You should eat. Midgardians need to eat to replenish their energy.”

“I’m fine,” I said, hiding my confusion. Since when did Loki care about Midgardians and their energy levels anyway? I started setting up for another game of solitaire to give myself something else to concentrate on. _Besides. Maybe he’ll get the point and go away. Crush notwithstanding, I’d really rather be alone right now._

“What are you doing?” he asked. I didn’t look up as I put the last set of cards down on the table, flipping the bottom one face up.

“Playing solitaire,” I said, considering the cards in front of me.

“Solitaire?”

_That queen can go on that king, and that’s an ace, so that goes there…_

“Yeah, solitaire. It’s a card game.”

“A game you play by yourself?” I did look up at Loki this time, suddenly exasperated.

“Yes a game you play by yourself. It’s in the name.” _Dumbass._ “Solitaire - French for ‘alone’.”

Loki was silent as I returned my attention to the cards, trying to fall back into the flow of the game, matching red to black, searching for patterns.

I was in the middle of flipping a new set of three cards when Loki spoke again.

“Teach me how to play?”

I looked up, surprised. I really thought he’d vanished again, bored with watching me play, especially as I wasn’t talking to him. But no, he was sat there, opposite me, helmet on the table next to him, asking me to teach him something. And I didn’t think it was a joke, either.

_Well how about that…_

“Ok,” I said. “Come over here.” I scrapped the game I was currently on, turning all the cards the same direction and shuffling while Loki stood, moved around the table, and sat down next to me.

“Here’s how it works,” I said, starting to deal the next game. “You want to end up with all of the suits stacked from ace to king in four piles on the top. On the bottom you can stack cards too, but those can only go red to black or black to red. You take three cards at a time from this pile here-”

I was so caught up in trying to explain the game that I didn’t notice Loki’s smile as he watched me, or the way he paid far more attention to my face than the cards as I explained the game.

**Author's Note:**

> As always, come and say hi on tumblr, if you feel so inclined!


End file.
